Ski boot

ABSTRACT

In a ski boot which outer shell comprises a rigid lower shell enclosing substantial portions of a foot, and a rigid upper shell in the form of an ankle cuff connected to the lower shell, the upper shell is movable to a forwardly outwardly inclined position relative to a boot sole. The movement of said upper shell substantially corresponds to an anatomically natural movement of a user&#39;&#39;s leg about an ankle.

Elnited States Paient Mochizuki 45 Apr. 24, 1973 54] SKI BOOT 3,543,421 12/1970 Ader ..36/2.5 AL Inventor: Yoshinafi Mochizuki y l p 3,486,247 12/1969 Franet 36/25 AL [73] Assignee: Hope Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo,

Japan Primary Examiner-Patrick D. Lawson Filed: y 1971 Att0rneyEliot S. Gerber [21] App]. No.: 161,212

[57] ABSTRACT Fm'eign Applimfion Priority Data In a ski boot which outer shell comprises a rigid lower July 10 1970 Japan ..45/60982 enclosing Substantial Portions of a foot and a rigid upper shell in the form of an ankle cuff con- 52 us. 131 ..36/2.5 AL the lower shell is movable 511 1111. C1. ..A43b a forwardly utward1y inclined Position relative to 58 Field of Search ..36/2.5 R 2.5 AL 5016- The movement 0f Said upper Substan- 7 tially corresponds to an anatomically natural move- [56] References Cited ment of a users leg about an ankle.

UNITED STATES PATENTS l2/l962 Scott et al. ..36/2.5 AL

3 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures Patented April 24, 1973 INVENTOR. 7 v/m/ Mac/1020,47

BY WM SK] BOOT This invention relates to a ski boot and more particularly to a ski boot which outer shell comprises a rigid lower shell enclosing substantial portions of a foot and a rigid upper shell in the form of an ankle cuff connected to the lower shell to be movable to a forwardly outwardly inclined position.

Compared with other sporting boots, ski boots have to snugly fit to skiers foot for smooth and positive control of skis and have to be made of relatively rigid material in order that the skiers weight may be posi tively applied to selected ski edges while traversing and turning.

To comply with the above demands, recently, a ski boot have been provided which comprises an outer shell made of light and hard plastics such as F. R. P. (fiber reinforced plastic) or light alloy, and an inner boot inserted within the outer shell to snugly conform to the skiers foot. In such a ski boot, to allow the skiers leg to move to the forwardly inclined position which is a skiing attitude, the outer shell is separated into a lower shell enclosing the substantial portion of the foot and an upper shell in the form of an ankle cuff. The upper shell is hinged or pivoted to the lower shell to be movable along the lengthwise direction of the boot to take the forwardly inclined position.

Studying an anatomic structure of feet and legs of a human body and a natural movement of feet and legs derived from the anatomic structure thereof, the present inventor has found the following facts. Namely, when a person stands upright with his feet arranging in parallel and with his toe directing forwardly, an inner ankle bone is nearer to a toe and higher than an outer ankle bone. Accordingly, a vertical plane passing through the inner and outer ankle bones does not interest at right angles with a vertical plane passing through a longitudinal center line ofa sole. Thus, when the leg is inclined forwardly from the above-mentioned uprightly standing attitude, the both legs are bent outwardly about an axis of the inner and outer ankle bones, and the both knees are moved to separate with each other.

In spite of the above facts, the conventional ski boot has the upper shell in the form of the ankle cuff hinged to the lower shell to be movable forwardly along the vertical plane passing through the longitudinal center line of the boot sole. Accordingly, when the skier wearing such ski boot bends his legs about the ankle for a socalled going down in skiing, the leg is impeded to incline to the forward outward direction, which direction is the anatomically natural movement of the leg, and is only inclined forwardly along the vertical plane passing through the longitudinal center line of the boot sole. Thus, the leg inclines the upper shell forwardly while pushing it outwardly, so that undesirable load is applied to the skier's shin. Such load prevents smooth skiing control and skier will be tired by his legs while he is skiing for long hours.

Further serious advantage of the conventional ski boot is that the skier wearing such conventional ski boot cannot easily control his ski edges. As is known, it depends upon edge control whether one can operate his skis at will. Especially, the edge control for traversing and turning is relatively difficult for beginners. As for ski racers, the edge control is regarded as decisive and inevitable in winning ski races.

In traversing, it is essential for a skier to ride the inside edge of a downhill ski. However, when the skier wears the conventional ski boot, the inside edge of the downhill ski cannot be edged enough simply by touching his downhill knee to his uphill knee from the forwardly inclined position of his knees. This is because the space between the knees of the forwardly inclined position is relatively narrow. Therefore, in order to edge the inside edge of the downhill ski, it is required for the skier to tuck his downhill knee into the cup behind his uphill knee and to intentionally weight to the edge. Such skiing attitude is called as comma position.

Furthermore, when the skier intends to do a parallel turn from the traverse, he has to stand up from the legs bent position to flatten the skis against the snow to sideslip the ski tails and he has to go down to weight the inside edge of his downhill ski. However, when he wears the conventional ski boot which upper shell only inclines forwardly along the longitudinal center line of the boot, the edging of the inside edge of the downhill ski is not sufficient only by touching his downhill knee to the uphill knee while he goes down after the sideslip of the ski tails. This is because of same reason as mentioned in the traverse skiing. Therefore, to do a sharp parallel turn, it is required, after the sideslip of the ski tails, to tuck the downhill knee into the cup behind the uphill knee and to intentionally weight or ride the inside edge of the downhill ski.

Such edging for traversing and turning is very difficult for a beginner and, therefore, many skiing attitudes have been proposed to allow thesmooth edge control for the beginner.

Also, it has been proposed to insert a small inclined plane, a ramp or cant, in the form of a wedge under the inside of the foot. Such cant allows the skis to lie perfectly flat against the snow when straight running, but does not contribute directly to edging at traversing and turning.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a ski boot which allows a user's leg to be bent forwardly outwardly along an anatomically natural movement of the leg.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a ski boot by which a user can effect desired edge control of skis by very simple knee actions.

According to the present invention, in a ski boot which outer shell comprises a rigid lower shell enclosing substantial portions of a foot, and a rigid upper shell in the form of an ankle cuff connected to the lower shell, the upper shell is movable to a forwardly outwardly inclined position relative to a boot sole, the movement of the upper shell to the forwardly outwardly inclined position corresponding substantially to an anatomically natural movement ofa leg about an ankle.

The ski boot of the present invention is so constructed that, when a skier wears the present boots attached to skis, his legs can be bent forwardly outwardly about his ankles. Thus, the forward bending of his legs is anatomically natural and the boot snugly fits to the skiers foot and leg while in bending, so that skier wearing this boots will not be tired even be skis for long hours.

A greater advantage is that the present boot enable a skier to control his skies more easily. Namely, when the skier wearing the present boots on the skis bends his legs forwardly about his ankles, the both knees are separated from each other as the legs are forwardly outwardly inclined. Accordingly, when the knees at this bent position are moved inwards to touch with each other, the moving length between the knees is wider than that of knees which are bent forwardly as the skier wears the conventional ski boots. Such wider moving length of the knees means that the edging degree of the inside edges of the skis is increased. Therefore, the skier wearing the present boots can effectively edge the inside edge of the downhill ski, while traversing or turning, simply by touching the downhill knee to the uphill knee from the forwardly outwardly bent positions of his knees. Such edging operation does not require an additional force to tuck the downhill knee into the cup behind the uphill knee or to intentionally weight the inside edge thereof, so that not only the edge controll is remarkably improved but also the skier will not be tired even he skis for many hours. When the skier wears the present ski boots, the skiing attitude such as comma position will no longer be required in traverse and other conventional skiing attitudes will be improved, so that beginners will be able to enjoy skiing easily.

The aforementioned and other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a specific embodiment thereof, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a right sole and a relative position of an ankle ofa person,

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing a right ski boot according to the present invention,

FIG. 3 is a schematic back view of the right ski boot shown in FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 is a schematic plane view of the right ski boot shown in FIG. 2,

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a right ski boot accord ing to an embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the same ski boot as in FIG. 5, in which the rear parts of an upper shell are open for insertion of skiers foot, and

FIG. 7 is a plane view of the same ski boot in which the rear parts of the upper shell are open as in FIG. 6.

As is apparently shown in FIG. ll, when a persons right sole is placed in the position, an inner ankle bone 1 is nearer to a toe than an outer ankle bone 2. An angle formed by a line (b) intersecting at right angles with a line (a) connecting the inner and the outer ankle bones 1 and 2 and a line (0) passing longitudinal center of the sole is about 20 degrees. Accordingly, the natural movement of a right leg about the ankle is, from an anatomic viewpoint, to move along a vertical plane passing through the line (11). Though not shown in FIG. 1, it is also noted that the inner ankle bone is higher than the outer ankle bone.

A ski boot according to the present invention is constructed in order to conform to the anatomically natural movement of a person's leg and is schematically shown in FIGS. 2 to 4. Though a right ski boot is only shown in Figures, a left ski boot can also be constructed in view of the fact that the inner ankle is nearer to the toe and higher than the outer ankle bone.

The ski boot comprises a lower shell 3 enclosing substantial portions ofa foot and an upper shell in the form of an ankle cuff4l hinged to the lower shell. Preferably, the lower shell 3 is integrally formed with a boot sole 5. The lower and upper shells are formed of rigid materials such as hard plastics, for example F. R. P, and light alloy.

The lower shell 3 is provided at its upper portions with an inner and an outer connecting walls 8 and 9, respectively, which are adjacent to inner and outer ankle bones when a users foot is inserted into the lower shell 3. The upper shell 4 is provided at its lower portions with an inner and an outer flaps 6 and 7. The upper shell 4 encircles and holds the upper portions of the ankle and, thereby, forms an ankle cuff.

In accordance with the present invention, an inner pivot 10 connecting the inner wall 8 of the lower shell 3 to the inner flap 6 of the upper shell is nearer to the boot toe and higher than a pivot ill connecting the outer wall 9 of the lower shell 3 to the outer flap 7 of the upper shell. The relative positions of the inner and outer pivots 10 and 11 correspond to those of the inner and the outer ankle bones. Such relative positions thereof are more clearly shown in FIG. 3, in which the inner pivot it) slightly higher than the outer pivot 11 and in FIG. 4 in which the inner pivot 10 is nearer to the boot toe than the outer pivot ll.

The upper shell 4 is so pivoted to the lower shell 3 that the upper shell inclines forwardly outwardly substantially along the vertical plane through the line (b) in FIG. 1.

Referring now to an embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 to 7 of the present invention, a ski boot is provided which outer shell comprises a lower shell 3 enclosing substantial portions of foot and an upper shell 4 in the form of an ankle cuff movably connected to the lower shell 3, the both upper and lower shells being made of rigid materials such as hard plastics, for example F. R. P, and metal alloy. The lower shell 3 is integrally formed with a boot sole 5. The upper shell 4 is separated into an upper front shell 12 encircling and holding upper front portions of the ankle or front portions of shin and a rear closure shell 13 which is adapted to close a rear opening of the front upper shell 12. When the rear closure shell 13 closes the rear opening of the front upper shell, it encircles and holds rear upper portions of the users ankle or lower portions of the calf. Thus, the front upper shell l2 and the rear closure shell 113 form the upper shell 4 in the form of the ankle cuff.

interposed between the upper end of the lower shell 3 and the lower end of the from upper shell 12 is an elastic sheet member 21. This sheet member 21 is adhered at its both ends to the upper and lower shells 4 and 3 to close an opening therebetween, thus serving to prevent snow from entering into the outer shell while in skiing.

A heel supporting shell 13 is hinged at 16 to the rear end of the lower shell 3 and locates between the front upper shell 12 and the rear closure shell 13, so that the heel supporting shell 14 pivotally moves back and forth therebetween. The inner free end of the heel supporting shell 14 closes the lower rear opening of the front upper shell 12 when the rear closure shell 13 is rotated to close the rear opening of the front upper shell 12. The rear closure shell 13 is clamped to the front upper shell 3 by a locking member 18.

The rear closure shell 13 and the heel supporting shell 14 are provided at their upper portions with soft plastic sheets 15 by which a skier wearing this boot will not feel pain at their rear portions of leg.

Attached inside of the front upper shell 12 and the heel supporting shell 14 are soft pads 19 which surround an inner boot (not shown) conforming to individual users foot.

Provided obliquely between the front surface of the front upper shell 12 and the upper surface of the lower shell 3 is means 20 for adjusting forward inclinations of the upper shell 4, which details are disclosed in a copending U.S. Pat. application No. 151,106 filed by the same applicant, n'ow U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,231.

The front upper shell 12 and the rear closure shell 13 are connected at their lower end portions to the upper end portions of the lower shell 3 by inner and outer pivots l0 and 11. in accordance with the present invention, when a user wears this boot, the inner pivot 10 locates in adjacent to the inner ankle bone and the outer pivot 11 locates in adjacent to the outer ankle bone. Accordingly, the inner pivot is nearer to the boot toe and slightly higher than the outer pivot 11, as is apparently shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, which allows the upper shell 4 to be inclined forwardly outwardly substantially along a vertical plane which inclines about 20 with respect to a vertical plane passing through a longitudinal center line of the boot sole 5.

Though the above description has been made with reference to the right ski boot shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, same description and explanation can be applied to a left ski boot with necessary modifications.

The ski boot according to the embodiment of the present invention is so constructed that, when a user or skier wears this boot, his legs can be bent about his ankles along the anatomically most natural direction, with the results that the boot snugly fits to the movement of the leg and that the skier will not be tired even while he is skiing for long hours.

Furthermore, when the skier wearing the present boots on the skis bends his legs, his knees move forwardly outwardly to separate from each other. Such movement of the knees is very advantageous for edge control in traversing and turning, because the inside edge of the downhill ski can be edged sufficiently simply by touching the downhill knee to the uphill knee.

Though the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, many modifications and alternations may be made to connect the upper shell to the lower shell.

For example, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, though the inner pivot 10 is at slightly higher position than the outer pivot 11, they may be on a same level, provided that the inner pivot 10 is nearer to the boot toe than the outer pivot 1 1.

What is claimed is:

l. A ski boot comprising a rigid lower shell enclosing major portions of a foot, a rigid upper shell in the form of a shell enclosing an ankle, and an inner and an outer pivot means connecting said upper shell with said lower shell, said inner pivot means being nearer to the boot toe than said outer pivot means so that said upper shell may be movable to a forward position corresponding to an anatomically natural movement of a leg about the ankle- 2. A ski boot as claimed in claim 1. wherein said upper shell is connected to said lower shell by inner and outer pivots, said inner pivot being nearer to the boot toe and slightly higher than said outer pivot, said inner and outer pivots being substantially in the same relative position as inner and outer ankle bones.

3. A ski boot as claimed in claim 1, wherein said upper shell moves forwardly outwardly along a vertical plane which is about 20 with respect to a vertical plane passing through a longitudinal center line of a boot sole of said lower shell. 

1. A ski boot comprising a rigid lower shell enclosing major portions of a foot, a rigid upper shell in the form of a shell enclosing an ankle, and an inner and an outer pivot means connecting said upper shell with said lower shell, said inner pivot means being nearer to the boot toe than said outer pivot means so that said upper shell may be movable to a forward position corresponding to an anatomically natural movement of a leg about the ankle.
 2. A ski boot as claimed in claim
 1. wherein said upper shell is connected to said lower shell by inner and outer pivots, said inner pivot being nearer to the boot toe and slightly higher than said outer pivot, said inner and outer pivots being substantially in the same relative position as inner and outer ankle bones.
 3. A ski boot as claimed in claim 1, wherein said upper shell moves forwardly outwardly along a vertical plane which is about 20* with respect to a vertical plane passing through a longitudinal center line of a boot sole of said lower shell. 